MUMBAI: Last Tuesday, All India Bakchod, a firm of comedians and impressionists, used its Facebook page to invite applications for internships in Mumbai. A written, sample piece of humour was compulsory with every application.

"Despite advising candidates to sleep over their work and not be in haste, we got 480 applications in the first two days," says co-founder of the company Tanmay Bhat. The firm had got 1,200 applications nationally during an earlier hiring drive in March. The company booked Rs1.5 crore in revenues from 20-odd shows during past five months. About half-a-dozen startups including The East India Comedy, The Viral Fever and Weirdass Comedy — all focussed on the business of humour — are now in the market to hire stand-up comedians, improvisers, satirists, etc. Salaries could be pretty attractive. Once established, a comedian can earn as much as Rs20-30 lakh a year, says Bhat.

The upbeat hiring plans of these startups capture a fairly new phenomenon: pure-play humour is becoming a mainstream entertainment option that city-dwellers are willing to spend a fair amount of money on.

"Comedy has gone from niche to mainstream. Now, this kind of entertainment is like heading for an evening out at a pub," says Girish Bobby Talwar, business partner, Weirdass Comedy.

And as entrepreneurs attempt to spin businesses around the funny bone, hundreds of young men and women are also trying to build careers around their wit.

"There is now a cool quotient about us," says Sapan Verma, co-founder of The East India Comedy. "We get 80 applications a week from tier-II cities such as Jaipur and Indore wanting to work with us." He recalls an engineering student from Goa who sent one joke a day for six months to pitch for a job. He didn't make the cut. The firm has six full-time employees and works only on project basis. These include award shows, gigs and standalone shows. It is hiring comedians, cinematographers and editors as freelancers.

"There is an explosion of demand for comedy acts in India now and we want to hire graduates in literature and content writers," says Amogh Ranadive, content head for Weirdass Comedy. "We are getting applications from Chandigarh, Ludhiana and south India for openings in Mumbai." It got 1,500 applications in three weeks in June, when it started hiring.

Although positions usually start as interns and barely 4-5 get absorbed, young India seems undeterred. Stand-up comedian and actor Vir Das is a founder of Weirdass Comedy. The Viral Fever, another Mumbai-based company, got 37 lakh views on YouTube for its satire on elections. TVF has a 40-45 member team working on videos. Biswapati Sarkar, creative director, says the firm prefers to concentrate only on the online video format. "We need technicians, editors and get 40 job applications a day from smaller towns and even neighbouring countries," Sarkar adds.

A little-known stand-up comedian can bill Rs 5,000-20,000 for a show while a popular one can get corporates to cough up Rs 1 lakh or more.

Besides stage shows, these companies are called in for corporate events, dealer meetings, script and content development for brands, columns in magazines and even for weddings, house parties and bachelor/bachelorette parties.

"Industry has developed wheels, venues have regular stand-up comedy acts and sponsors have realised they can interact with audience and bring in humour in brand messaging," says Weirdass Comedy's Talwar.

All India Bakchod, which was registered as a company a couple of months ago, earns money from sponsors of their videos on YouTube and ticket sales of shows. Its team of eight employees also consults for brands, writes scripts and conducts workshops for corporates and students. "People want a stake in our firm, but it is too nascent for that," says cofounder Bhat.

And it is not merely those proficient in the Queen's language who are the rage, regional players have a fan base too. Gujarat-based Manan Desai and his wife are founders of The Comedy Factory and perform seven bilingual (Hindi and Gujarati) shows a month across the state.

"In Gujarat, getting a DJ is no more in vogue and we are asked to perform in weddings, bachelor parties, baby showers, and money is not a concern," said Desai. His team of five includes a lecturer, a musician and game designer. Before a wedding, they spend days with the family, get familiar and write scripts accordingly. He charges about Rs 25,000 per artiste for a 90-minute show.

Desai gets hundreds of mails a week from actors, scriptwriters and professionals who want to join his troupe. Like any other industry, this too has specialists and niche skills are needed. Scripts required for stage acts are different from video formats and what strikes a chord with a live audience is unlike what a You-Tube watcher will prefer